Struggling with difficulties

A student came to me last week and said, “I love Hapkido, but I think I’ve reached my peak”.
I was a little confused because that was not what I was thinking at all. “What do you mean?”, I questioned.
The student said that he didn’t think he could do the current skills, that he was finding them very difficult.
I immediately responded, “Oh, that’s wonderful!”. The student looked at me rather confused, so I had to explain:

Often we see difficulty as being something bad. They hit a difficulty in Hapkido so they leave and go to Jujitsu. Then there is a difficulty there so maybe Judo is the answer… then maybe Karate… etc….

A difficulty is an opportunity to learn – if everything was easy what would you get out of that?

If you want to be a Hapkido expert I guarantee you that you will have difficulties. Some of you will struggle to fall, others will be afraid of sparring, a few might have motivational problems, someone else might have an issue with calling their instructor “Sir”, another might start to feel anger because I don’t teach him new skills, maybe someone fails their grading or gets an injury, maybe they resent helping lower belts with skills …. Every students problem will be different.

But……If you stay committed to your practice through difficult times then you will find gold at the end… physically better, but what you learn about yourself is invaluable.

Remember Hapkido expert is not only physically proficient, but also patience, perseverance, confidence, leadership skills, humility …. All these things….

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"I aim to create a climate that focuses on personal growth and improvement - not street fighting. I believe that we are all different, that everyone can develop and that making mistakes is a key part of learning."